Apparatus and method for determining group owner in establishment of wi-fi direct connection

ABSTRACT

A method and a first device for determining a group owner during establishment of a local-wireless communication connection are provided. The method includes searching for a second device that supports the local-wireless communication connection; searching, if the second device is found, for services supportable by the second device; determining an intent value of the first device corresponding to a group owner authority with respect to a service to be connected among the found supportable services; transmitting, to the second device, a negotiation message including the determined intent value of the first device; receiving, from the second device, a negotiation message including an intent value of the second device; and determining, from among the first device and the second device, a device having the group owner authority by comparing the determined intent value of the first device with the intent value of the second device.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/588,434, which was filed in the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office on Aug. 17, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,031,507, whichclaims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to a Korean Patent Applicationfiled in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Aug. 18, 2011 andassigned Serial No. 10-2011-0082090, the entire contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and method forperforming a service connection in a Wi-Fi Direct network, and moreparticularly, to an apparatus and method for determining a group ownerin a service connection in a Wi-Fi Direct network.

2. Description of the Related Art

Wi-Fi Direct is a communication technique which allows devices todirectly connect each other for data exchange without an Access Point(AP) beyond a conventional wireless LAN technique in which networking ismade based on an AP. Herein, “Wi-Fi Direct” refers to devices and/orcommunications compatible with the WI-FI DIRECT™ communicationsprotocols.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a Wi-Fi Direct network between devices.

Referring to FIG. 1, a basic Wi-Fi Direct connection scheme performs aone-to-one connection between devices 110 and 120, thus forming a Wi-FiDirect network 100. For example, the pair of devices 110 and 120 may be,for example, two smart phones, a notebook and a mouse, and a tabletPersonal Computer (PC) and a printer, etc. directly connected to eachother through Wi-Fi Direct, thus establishing an Internet connection orforming a network. In addition, a device may form a network with one ormore devices in the vicinity of the device, such as a digital camera, anMotion Picture Experts' Group Audio Layer 3 (MP3) player, a gameconsole, a TV, etc. Consequently, various forms of communications andtransfers are enabled. For example, a picture, a music file, or a movingimage contained in a smart phone may be easily transmitted to anothersmart phone, a document and a picture stored in a tablet PC may bedirectly printed, contact information of a PC and contact information ofa smart phone may be synchronized with each other, and game consoles maybe directly connected to be used for playing a game.

Based on the Wi-Fi Direct scheme, devices may be connected according tothe following process. Referring to FIG. 1, a first device 110 searchesfor a device supporting Wi-Fi Direct in the vicinity thereof and finds asecond device 120. The first device 110 determines whether the seconddevice 120 supports a service desired by the first device 110, thuschecking connection intention. If a desired service and a providedservice are matched, the first device 110 determines connectionintention with the second device 120 and negotiates with the seconddevice 120 regarding which one of the first device 110 and the seconddevice 120 is to serve as an owner (or a soft Access Point (AP)). Thetwo devices 110 and 120 exchange their intent values to determinewhether to serve as an owner. The two devices 110 and 120 determinewhich one of the devices 110 and 120 is to serve as an owner through theforegoing procedure, and then the determined device starts operating asthe owner and functioning as the soft AP.

As such, since the Wi-Fi Direct scheme is a direct connection scheme inwhich one of devices serves as a soft AP without a separate physical AP,one of two or more devices forming a Wi-Fi Direct network group mustoperate as a group owner that has control over other devices and servesas a soft AP.

As described above, among devices that form a Wi-Fi Direct network toexecute a service, a device is designated as a group owner. If a deviceis a mobile communication terminal, for Wi-Fi Direct connection betweenthe mobile communication terminal and another terminal of the same type,it does not matter which one of the two mobile communication terminalsis designated as a group owner and there is no difference inperformance.

However, as shown in FIG. 1, the first device 110, which is a mobilecommunication terminal, may be connected with the second device 120,which is a computer. In other words, the mobile communication terminalmay have to be connected with a high-performance device that hassuperior performance over the mobile communication terminal and isconstantly provided with power. In this case, it is preferable that thesecond device 120 that is the high-performance device operates as agroup owner and the first device 110 executes a general client function.

Although one of devices operates as a group owner while establishing theWi-Fi Direct connection, there currently is no way to designate a groupowner, such that designation of a device suitable for a particularsituation or condition, such as a service type, among the devices isguaranteed. As such, in execution of a Wi-Fi Direct connectionprocedure, a group owner cannot be designated according to a type of aservice to be connected, resulting in inefficient group management.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide anapparatus and method for efficiently designating a group owner when aWi-Fi Direct network group is formed between devices.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide an apparatus andmethod for designating a group owner based on a type of a service when aWi-Fi Direct network group is formed between devices.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided amethod for determining a group owner during establishment of alocal-wireless communication connection performed by a first device. Themethod includes searching for a second device that supports thelocal-wireless communication connection; searching, if the second deviceis found, for services supportable by the second device; determining anintent value of the first device corresponding to a group ownerauthority with respect to a service to be connected among the foundsupportable services; transmitting, to the second device, a negotiationmessage including the determined intent value of the first device;receiving, from the second device, a negotiation message including anintent value of the second device; and determining, from among the firstdevice and the second device, a device having the group owner authorityby comparing the determined intent value of the first device with theintent value of the second device.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda first device for determining a group owner during establishment of alocal-wireless communication connection. The first device includes alocal-wireless communication connecting unit for searching for a seconddevice that supports the local-wireless communication connection andsearching for services supportable by the second device, if the seconddevice is found; and a controller for determining an intent value of thefirst device corresponding to a group owner authority with respect to aservice to be connected among the found supportable services,transmitting, to the second device, a negotiation message including thedetermined intent value of the first device, and receiving, from thesecond device, a negotiation message including an intent value of thesecond device, and determining, form among the first device and thesecond device, a device having the group owner authority by comparingthe determined intent value of the first device with the intent value ofthe second device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and advantages of an exemplary embodimentof the present invention will be more apparent from the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a Wi-Fi Direct network between generaldevices;

FIG. 2 is an internal block diagram illustrating a device thatestablishes Wi-Fi Direct connection according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a signal flowchart illustrating a method for designating agroup owner in establishment of Wi-Fi Direct connection between devicesaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram illustrating a service discovery messageaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a table showing intent values withrespect to services according to an embodiment of the present invention;and

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operations in a first device shown inFIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention are described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be notedthat throughout the drawings, identical components may be referred to byidentical reference numerals. The detailed descriptions of functions andconfigurations incorporated herein that are well known to those skilledin the art may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presentinvention.

The following detailed description corresponds to representativeembodiments of the present invention for. For convenience, names ofentities defined in Wi-Fi Direct or Wi-Fi P2P will be used, but suchstandards and names do not limit the scope of the present invention andthe present invention may also be applied to any system having a similartechnical background.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method fordesignating a group owner among devices forming a local-wirelesscommunication (e.g. Wi-Fi Direct) network is provided. To this end, amethod according to an embodiment of the present invention may include,once a device finds a target device which is to be Wi-Fi Directconnected in a Wi-Fi Direct based network, searching for an intent valueregarding a group owner, which corresponds to a service to be connectedwith the target device, by referring to a table which stores intentvalues with respect to services, and exchanging negotiation messagesincluding the found intent values for the group owner with the targetdevice and then designating the group owner by comparing the exchangedintent values. Through this method, the group owner can be designatedaccording to the service to be connected.

Operations and components of a device having the foregoing functionimplemented therein are described as follows with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is an internal block diagram illustrating a device thatestablishes Wi-Fi Direct connection according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a device 200 includes a Wi-Fi Direct controller210, a Wi-Fi Direct connecting unit 220, a user interface 230, and anintent value storing unit 240. Herein, the device 200 may be any devicethat supports Wi-Fi Direct, such as a smart phone, a cellular phone, adigital camera, an MP3 player, a game console, a TV, a display device, aprinter, a beam projector, a vehicle head unit, etc.

The Wi-Fi Direct connecting unit 220 searches for a nearby device andsearches for a supportable service.

The user interface 230 is an input means for receiving a selection of adesired service among found services from a user.

The intent value storing unit 240 stores a table in which an intentvalue regarding a group owner is mapped to each of at least one service.An intent value indicating authority of a group owner (or lack thereof)according to an embodiment of the present invention may be setdifferently according to types of services, and may be changed by a userthrough the user interface 230.

The Wi-Fi Direct controller 210, after searching for a partner devicethat can provide a desired service through a service discovery, performsa group owner negotiation. In the service discovery state, devicesexchange negotiation messages with each other and intent values includedin the negotiation messages are compared, such that a device havingtransmitted a larger intent value is designated as a group owner.

More specifically, after the service discovery is performed, the Wi-FiDirect controller 210 determines an intent value corresponding to aservice to be connected among found services by referring to the tablestored in the intent value storing unit 240, generates a negotiationrequest message including the determined intent value, and transmits thegenerated negotiation request message to the found device. The Wi-FiDirect controller 210 receives a negotiation request message includingan intent value of the found device in response to the negotiationrequest message and compares the intent values of the two devices. Basedon a result of the comparison, the device having the larger intent valueis designated as a group owner. If the device 200 is designated as thegroup owner, the found device operates as a client.

A group owner designating process in establishing a Wi-Fi Directconnection between two devices is described with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a signal flowchart illustrating a method for designating agroup owner in establishment of Wi-Fi Direct connection between devicesaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the first device 200 and a second device 250 mayform a Wi-Fi Direct network by establishing direct peer-to-peer (P2P)connection.

The first device 200 senses a beacon signal transmitted from the seconddevice 250 in step 300, and finds the second device 250 through a devicediscovery procedure in step 305. In step 310, the first device 200performs a service discovery procedure for searching for a supportableservice. Through the service discovery procedure, the first device 200searches for a user desired service supported by the second device 250.For example, the first device 200 may search for all services supportedby the second device 250 or a particular service supported by the seconddevice 250.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, various servicediscovery methods may be selectively used according to varioustechniques. The examples of service discovery described herein arenon-limiting, and other forms of service discovery may be used inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention. In the describedexamples herein, only a discovery results corresponding to servicesdetected in both devices (i.e., both the first device 200 and the seconddevice 250) are used for a convenience of description.

A discovery procedure in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention is described as follow with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram illustrating a service discovery messageaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, a format of a general service discovery message,which is formatted as a Generic Advertising Service (GAS) message formatdefined in Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE)802.11u, and Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) Organizationally Unique Identifier(OUI) Subtype 400 is included in the GAS message to indicate a messagetype defined in the WFA specification. The WFA OUI Subtype 400 has aService Type-Length-Value (TLV) field 405 therein, and the Service TLVfield permits various service discovery methods. For example, variousservice discovery methods such as Bonjour 410 or Universal Plug and Play(UPnP) 415 may be used, but these methods are merely provided asexamples, and other discovery methods may be used in accordance withembodiments of the present invention.

Respective service discovery methods deliver a type of a service theydesire to support, including service types in various forms. In theexample illustrated in FIG. 4, various services such as ConvergentConnectivity Technology (CCT), TeleVision (TV), Audio, Car Connectivity,and so forth may be defined. In the present example according to anembodiment of the present invention, the Car Connectivity service issupported through the Bonjour or UPnP discovery techniques.

Referring back to FIG. 3, after a desired service is found through theservice discovery procedure, a group owner negotiation procedure 315 isperformed in as follows. The first device 200 determines an intent valueregarding the authority of a group owner according to the found service.The first device 200 may determine the intent value by referring to aservice-intent value mapping table. Next, the first device 200 generatesa negotiation request message including the determined intent value ofthe first device 200. Then, the first device 200 delivers thenegotiation request message, which includes the determined intent valueof the first device 200, to the second device 250 in step 320. Inresponse to the negotiation request message, the first device 200receives a negotiation response message including an intent value of thesecond device 250 in step 325. On the other hand, if the second device250 sends a negotiation request message including its intent value, thefirst device 200 may send a negotiation response message including theintent value of the first device 200, which is determined in the firstdevice 200, to the second device 250. The first device 200 is notnecessarily the entity that sends the negotiation request message, andnegotiation messages are exchanged in order to check a partner's intentvalue.

The basic format of the negotiation message is based on a format shownin Table 1, as follows:

TABLE 1 SIZE VALUE FIELD (octets) (Hexadecimal) DESCRIPTION Category 10x04 IEEE 802.11 public action usage. Action 1 0x09 IEEE 802.11 vendorspecific usage. Field OUI 3 00 50 F2 WFA specific OUI. OUI type 1 0x09(to be Identifying the type or version of assigned) action frame.Setting to 09 indicates WFA P2P v 1.0. OUI 1 Identifying the type of P2Ppublic Subtype action frame. The specific value is defined in Table 2.Dialog 1 Set to a nonzero value to indentify Token the request/responsetransaction. Elements variable Including P2P IE or any informationelements defined in IEEE Std 802.11-2007 [1].

Referring to Table 2, ‘OUI Subtype’ of Table 1 expresses whether themessage is a Group Owner (GO) negotiation request message, a GOnegotiation response message, or a confirmation message.

TABLE 2 TYPE NOTES 0 Go Negotiation Request 1 Go Negotiation Response 2Go Negotiation Confirmation 3 P2P Invitation Request 4 P2P InvitationResponse 5 Device Discoverability Request 6 Device DiscoverabilityResponse 7 Provision Discovery Request 8 Provision Discovery Response9-255 Reserved

If the message is expressed as the GO negotiation request message inTable 2, the negotiation request message is configured with contentsshown in Table 3. If the message is expressed as the GO negotiationresponse message in Table 2, the negotiation response message isconfigured with contents shown in Table 4.

TABLE 3 ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTES ID NOTE Status 0 The Status attribute shallonly be present in the P2P IE if the Status Code being signaled is“Rejected by User”. P2P Capability 2 The P2P Capability attribute shallbe present in the P2P IE. Group Owner 4 The Group Owner Intentattributes shall be Intent present in the P2P IE. Configuration 5 TheConfiguration Timeout attribute shall be Timeout present in the P2P IE.Listen Channel 6 The Listen Channel attribute shall be present in theP2P IE. Extended 8 The Extended Listen Timing attribute may Listen bepresent in the P2P IE to advertise Listen Timing State availability ofthe P2P Device sending the GO Negotiation Request. Intended P2P 9 TheIntended P2P Interface Address attribute Interface shall be present inthe P2P IE. Address Channel List 11 The Channel List attribute shall bepresent in the P2P IE. P2P Device 13 The P2P Device Informationattribute shall Info be present in the P2P IE. Operating 17 TheOperating Channel attribute shall be Channel present in the P2P IE.

In Table 3, in a ‘Group Owner Intent’ field, an intent value determinedaccording to a service type in a device according to an embodiment ofthe present invention is set.

TABLE 4 ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTES ID NOTE Status 0 The Status attribute shallbe present in the P2P IE. P2P Capability 2 The P2P Capability attributeshall be present in the P2P IE. Group Owner Intent 4 The Group OwnerIntent attribute shall be present in the P2P IE. Configuration 5 TheConfiguration Timeout attribute Timeout shall be present in the P2P IE.Operating Channel 17 The Operating Channel attribute shall be present inthe P2P IE. Intended P2P 9 The Intended P2P Interface Address InterfaceAddress attribute shall be present in the P2P IE. Channel List 11 TheChannel List attribute shall be present in the P2P IE. P2P Device Info13 The P2P Device Information attribute shall be present in the P2P IE.

Like in Table 3, in Table 4, an intent value determined according to atype of a service in a device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention is set in a ‘Group Owner Intent’ field. If the first device200 stores a mapping table stored by a user and the second device 250does not have a mapping table, a default intent value may be set in the‘Group Owner Intent’ field in the second device 250. The default valuemay be set at the time of device manufacturing, and may also be changedafter manufacture for user convenience.

Upon exchanging the negotiation request message and the negotiationresponse message as shown in Table 3 and Table 4, the first device 200and the second device 250 check intent values included in thenegotiation request message and the negotiation response message,respectively, in steps 330 and 335. In step 340, ownership negotiationand group owner designation are performed between the first device 200and the second device 250. More specifically, the first device 200compares its intent value with the intent value received from the seconddevice 250 to designate a device having a larger intent value as a groupowner. If the second device 250 is designated as a group owner, thesecond device 250 starts operating as the group owner in step 342. Thatis, when the second device 250 is designated as a group owner, itoperates as AP rather than as a client and performs group owneroperations. Consequently, after transmitting a beacon signal in step345, the second device 250 performs authentication with the first device200 in step 350 and performs association with the first device 200 instep 355, thus establishing connection in step 360.

As described above, according to embodiments of the present invention,the authority of the group owner can be flexibly managed according to aservice, such that an optimal device for executing a service to beconnected can be designated as the group owner among devices forming aWi-Fi Direct network.

To flexibly manage the authority of the group owner according to aservice, an intent value regarding the group owner is mapped to eachservice for management using a table in advance.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a table showing intent values withrespect to services according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, a table 510 is stored in the intent value storingunit 240 of a device, such as a mobile terminal 500. For a mobileterminal file sharing service, an intent value may be set to be themaximum value to express a strong intention of having group ownerauthority. For a Wi-Fi display service and a game service, intent valuesmay be set to be 5 and 8 to express a milder intention when a user maynot be concerned with whether their device has group owner authority.For a car connectivity service, a printing service, and a beam projectorservice, intent values may be set to the minimum value to expressintention not to have group owner authority. In the present example, anintent value may range from a minimum value of 0 to a maximum value of15, and the intent value range may vary as defined in a Wi-Fi DirectTechnology.

When a user gets in a car, it may be desirable to designate a car headunit 520 mounted as a group owner at all times, rather than a mobileterminal carried by the user. Therefore, in a table 530 of the car headunit 520, an intent value is set to the maximum value for to the carconnectivity service.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operations in a first device shown inFIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, an operating process for designating a group ownerin a mobile terminal when Wi-Fi Direct connection is established betweenthe mobile terminal and a car head unit is described. In FIG. 6, it isassumed that a first device is a mobile terminal and a second device isa car head unit, and for a car connectivity service between the twodevices, the mobile terminal stores an intent value of 0, in order toindicate an intention for the mobile terminal to operate in a clientmode at all times, and the vehicle head unit stores an intent value of15, in order to indicate an intention for the vehicle head unit tooperate as a group owner at all times.

When a driver carrying the mobile terminal gets in the car having thecar head unit mounted therein, the mobile terminal performs devicediscovery, in step 600. Through the device discovery operation, themobile terminal determines whether a device capable of performing Wi-FiDirect communication is found, in step 605. If a device capable ofperforming Wi-Fi Direct communication is found, the mobile terminalperforms service discovery, in step 610. In performing the servicediscovery, the mobile terminal may search for a particular service orsearch for all services that can be provided by the found device,according to user's setting or manufacturer's presetting. According tosuch service discovery settings, up to a plurality of services may befound through the service discovery operation. Therefore, in step 615,the mobile terminal determines whether a plurality of services is found.

If only a single service supported in the vehicle head unit is foundthrough the service discovery operation, the mobile terminal searchesfor an intent value corresponding to the found service in a table instep 620. For example, if the service supported in the vehicle head unitis, for example, a car connectivity service and the car connectivityservice is found, the mobile terminal searches for an intent valuecorresponding to the car connectivity service by referring to the tableshown in FIG. 5. The intent value of 0 set for the car connectivityservice as shown in FIG. 5 means that the mobile terminal intends tooperate as a client.

However, if a plurality of services are found, for example, if allservices or a plurality of particular services supported in the vehiclehead unit are found, the mobile terminal receives selection of one ofthem from the user, in step 625. If one of the discovered services isselected, the mobile terminal searches for an intent value correspondingto the selected service in the table shown in FIG. 5, in step 630.

If the corresponding intent value exists in the table in step 635, themobile terminal generates a negotiation message including the foundintent value and transmits the generated negotiation message to thevehicle head unit in step 640. However, if no corresponding intent valueis found in the table, in step 635, for example, if the user has not setan intent value corresponding to the car connectivity service, themobile terminal searches for a default intent value, in step 645.Consequently, if there is no corresponding intent value in the table,the mobile terminal generates a negotiation message including thedefault intent value and transmits the negotiation message to thevehicle head unit in step 640. Therefore, the mobile terminal and thecar head unit can recognize that the intent value of the mobile terminalis 0 and the intent value of the car head unit is 15. In this way, byexchanging negotiation messages, the mobile terminal checks the intentvalue exchanged with the car head unit and designates the car head unithaving the larger intent value as a group owner in step 650. As such,according to embodiments of the present invention, the user of themobile terminal can determine whether to use the mobile terminal as agroup owner according to a type of a service, and thus, can flexiblychange the group owner according to a type of a service.

As is apparent from the foregoing description, a Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer(P2P) device may set different intent values for determining a groupowner for various services, thereby determining whether to operate as agroup owner according to various types of supportable services.Moreover, according to embodiments of the present invention, differentintent values may be set in order to allow more optimized connectionestablishments according to types of services.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference tocertain embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled inthe art that various changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the scope of the invention as defined by theappended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for determining a group owner duringestablishment of a local-wireless communication connection performed bya first device, the method comprising: searching for a second devicethat supports the local-wireless communication connection; searching, ifthe second device is found, for services supportable by the seconddevice; determining an intent value of the first device corresponding toa group owner authority with respect to a service to be connected amongthe found supportable services; transmitting, to the second device, anegotiation message including the determined intent value of the firstdevice; receiving, from the second device, a negotiation messageincluding an intent value of the second device; and determining, fromamong the first device and the second device, a device having the groupowner authority by comparing the determined intent value of the firstdevice with the intent value of the second device.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the local-wireless communication connection is a Wi-FiDirect connection.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining ofthe intent value of the first device comprises: searching for an intentvalue corresponding to the service to be connected, by referring to atable in which a respective intent value corresponding to the groupowner authority is mapped to each service.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein at least one of each intent value in the table is changeable bya user.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the first device andthe second device is at least one of a smart phone, a cellular phone, adigital camera, a Motion Picture Experts' Group Audio Layer-3 (MP3)player, a game console, a television, a display device, a printer, abeam projector, and a car head unit.
 6. The method of claim 5, whereinif the first device is a cellular phone and the second device is a carhead unit, the service to be connected is a car connectivity service. 7.The method of claim 6, further comprising, if the first device is acellular phone and the second device is a car head unit, storing, by thefirst device, an intent value, which is set to a minimum value,corresponding to the car connectivity service, such that the seconddevice is designated as the group owner.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the device having the authority of the group owner is, fromamong the first device and the second device, a device having a largerintent value corresponding to the service to be connected.
 9. A firstdevice for determining a group owner during establishment of alocal-wireless communication connection, the first device comprising: alocal-wireless communication connecting unit for searching for a seconddevice that supports the local-wireless communication connection andsearching for services supportable by the second device, if the seconddevice is found; and a controller for determining an intent value of thefirst device corresponding to a group owner authority with respect to aservice to be connected among the found supportable services,transmitting, to the second device, a negotiation message including thedetermined intent value of the first device, and receiving, from thesecond device, a negotiation message including an intent value of thesecond device, and determining, form among the first device and thesecond device, a device having the group owner authority by comparingthe determined intent value of the first device with the intent value ofthe second device.
 10. The first device of claim 9, wherein thelocal-wireless communication connection is a Wi-Fi Direct connection.11. The first device of claim 9, further comprising a storing unit forstoring a table in which a respective intent value corresponding to thegroup owner authority is mapped to each service.
 12. The first device ofclaim 11, wherein the controller searches for an intent valuecorresponding to the service to be connected, by referring to the table.13. The first device of claim 11, wherein at least one of eachrespective intent value regarding the group owner authority for eachservice in the table is changeable by a user.
 14. The first device ofclaim 9, wherein each of the first device and the second device is atleast one of a smart phone, a cellular phone, a digital camera, a MotionPicture Experts' Group Audio Layer-3 (MP3) player, a game console, atelevision, a display device, a printer, a beam projector, and a carhead unit.
 15. The first device of claim 14, wherein if the first deviceis a cellular phone and the second device is a car head unit, theservice to be connected is a car connectivity service.
 16. The firstdevice of claim 15, wherein the storing unit stores an intent value,which is set to a minimum value, corresponding to the car connectivityservice such that the second device is designated as the group owner, ifthe first device is a cellular phone and the second device is a car headunit.
 17. The first device of claim 9, wherein the device having thegroup owner authority is, from among the first and second devices, adevice having a larger intent value corresponding to the service to beconnected.